The haze approaching Guagzhou and the Pearl River ValleyI just arrived in Guangzhou. Though it was only a 3 hour flight south from Beijing, the bus travel to and from the airports added almost 5 hours to the travel day. It was cold and raining this morning in Beijing, and here it's a muggy, dripping, hot, polluted 80 degrees F at 8:00 in the evening. Chinese legend tells of Guangzhou being founded by Five Immortals riding five rams. Each ram planted stalks of rice which symbolizes abundance of harvest or prosperity. And this is how Guangzhou got its nickname, 'Yang Cheng' , which literally means 'Goat City'. ( Good luck finding a goat within the city limits today .... )
The city is the capital of Guangdong Province, one of the richest industrial areas in China in the south of China, and is the second largest source of Chinese students studying in the U.S.; that's why I'm here. The city and it's 14 million inhabitants haven't shown me much to write home about, thus far. However, none of the roads from the airports to the city centers in China that I've been on have been scenic routes; quite the contrary.
Tomorrow is another full day of meetings with U.S. Consular officers, and presentations to agency study abroad counselors. I'm beginning to dream about my PowerPoint presentation, and it's bordering on the "nightmare" category.
To clear my head of travel and thoughts about the schedule on Friday, I took a walk through the market area just a few blocks from the "lovely" Dong Fang Hotel, where I'm staying. It's an assault on your senses to navigate these little roads and alley ways. I smelled more things that I couldn't identify than those I could, and saw goods being sold that I could only guess and wonder about. I did recognize the product in one particular food stall. Prior to coming upon the scene below, a small group of us had been contemplating a Peking Duck dinner later this evening. My thoughts quickly turned (along with my stomach) to something more vegetarian.
3 comments:
Ugh. Seems like a vegetarian day all around. Joshua said this morning, "Did you know that the HAM in HAMburger is Cow?! I didn't know that!" Makes me reconsider this vegetarian thing ALL over again! Hope you were able to find some space to calm all your senses and get some rest for the visits ahead. Love you!
Gretchen
Peking duck sounds wonderful right now! Did you take that picture from the airplane. Nice job, if you did. I hope you are finding solitude in the midst of all of the busy meetings. We're going to be celebrating Jessica's pending nuptials tomorrow at a bridal shower luncheon for her and her fiance. Ham, not duck, is on the menu.
I think you still should have had the duck! I agree, the picture from the air is impressive.
Love - P
Post a Comment